Every plug in heater sold in Australia is working inside the same ceiling, which is why the specification sheet matters less than people expect. Two units at the same wattage put out the same amount of heat. What separates them is how they look and how well they are built.
An electric fireplace is the appliance we get asked the most sceptical questions about, and the scepticism is fair enough. The flame is not real, the unit weighs almost nothing, and it plugs into the wall like a kettle. It is reasonable to wonder whether any actual heat is involved.
There is, and the physics is unusually simple. What is less simple, and what almost nobody explains at the point of sale, is how much heat, and how that compares with the gas and wood appliances sitting on the same showroom floor. Those numbers are knowable, so here they are.
The short version is that an electric fireplace is a very good answer to a specific question and a poor answer to a different one. Most disappointment with electric heating comes from asking it the second question.
The short version
- An electric fireplace will heat a room. A standard power point caps output at roughly 2.4 kilowatts, and most units sit between 1 and 2 kilowatts.
- That suits bedrooms, studies, apartments, rentals, granny flats and second living areas. It does not suit a large open plan space as the only source of heat.
- No flue, no chimney, no council approval, no gas connection and no compliance certificate. A power point is the entire installation.
- On running cost, electric is dearer than natural gas. Coffs Harbour has no natural gas, and against LPG the gap largely closes.
- Not sure what your room needs? Call Coffs Gas Company on (02) 6652 2411.
What a power point can actually deliver
A standard Australian power point is a 10 amp outlet, which gives you about 2,400 watts, or 2.4 kilowatts, to work with. At Australia’s nominal 230 volts the figure is nearer 2,300, and heaters are built to the higher number. That is an absolute ceiling on any appliance that plugs into it. Not a guideline, a limit. It applies to an electric fireplace, a fan heater, an oil column heater and a kettle equally.
In practice most electric fireplaces are built under that ceiling. A 1,500 watt element is the most common configuration, often split into a low setting around 750 watts and a high setting around 1,500. Larger units run to 2,000 watts, and the biggest sit at around 2,400, which is the ceiling itself.
That last point is worth sitting with, because it means the limit is not theoretical. The largest plug in appliance you can buy is already pressed against it, and there is no bigger version waiting on the next shelf.
So the honest figure for what an electric fireplace heater brings to a room is one to two kilowatts of heat for most units, delivered instantly, with no losses.
The efficiency claim, and what it does not mean
You will see electric heating described as 100 per cent efficient, and it is true. An electric element has nowhere else to send the energy it draws, so every unit of electricity becomes heat in the room. Nothing is lost up a flue, because there is no flue. For contrast, the Australian Government’s energy guidance puts reverse cycle air conditioning at “300-600% efficient”, because it moves heat rather than making it.
That is a genuine advantage over any appliance that burns something, because a flued appliance sends some of its heat up the flue by design. But it is worth being clear about what the claim does not say. It does not say electric heating is cheap, because efficiency is about conversion, not about the price of the fuel being converted. And it does not say electric heating is powerful. A 1.5 kilowatt heater that is 100 per cent efficient still only produces 1.5 kilowatts of heat.
This is the single most misread number in home heating, and it is the reason people buy an electric appliance expecting it to do a wood heater’s job.
How that compares with the other two
This is the comparison we would want if we were standing on the other side of the counter.
| Appliance | Realistic heat output | What that comfortably heats | What the installation involves |
|---|---|---|---|
| Electric fireplace, plug in | 1 to 2 kilowatts, capped at 2.4 by the power point | A bedroom, study, apartment living area or second lounge room | A power point. No flue, no approval, no certificate |
| Portable gas heater, unflued | Under 25 megajoules per hour, which is roughly 7 kilowatts | A room large enough for its output. The installation standard sets a minimum room volume, so a big heater needs a big room | A bayonet point, plus the ventilation and the minimum room size the manual sets |
| Gas fireplace or gas log fire, flued | Varies by model, well beyond what a power point can deliver | A main living area, including open plan | Licensed gasfitter, power flue, compliance certificate |
| Wood fireplace or wood heater | The highest of the four, and it keeps producing heat after the fire dies down | A whole open plan area, and often adjoining rooms | Council approval first, flue system, installer working to the standard |
Read across the top row and the bottom row and the decision usually makes itself. These are not competing products so much as products for different rooms. If you are still weighing the three fuels against each other, our comparison of a gas fireplace, a wood fireplace and an electric flame fire goes through the trade offs in more detail.
So which rooms does an electric fireplace actually suit
The rooms where it is the right answer
A bedroom is close to ideal. You want heat for an hour before bed in a space with a door on it, you do not want a flue through the roof, and one to two kilowatts is plenty.
A study or home office is the same case. So is a granny flat, a studio or a small apartment living area, where a flue path may not exist at all and body corporate approval for one would be its own project.
A second living room is the case people underrate. A media room or rumpus at the other end of the house is often the room the main heater never reaches, and running a gas line or a flue to it is disproportionate to how often it gets used.
Rentals belong on this list too. A freestanding or plug in electric fireplace is the only one of the three you can take with you when you move, and the only one that involves no alteration to the property at all. A wall mounted unit is a fixing into somebody else’s wall, so that one still needs a conversation with the landlord.
The rooms where it is not
A large open plan living, kitchen and dining space is where electric fireplaces earn their reputation. Two kilowatts spread across that volume is not going to feel like much on a genuinely cold evening, and turning it up is not an option because there is nothing left to turn up.
High raked ceilings work against it for the same reason. So does a poorly sealed older home, where the heat you have paid for leaves faster than the appliance can replace it.
And if the appliance is meant to be the heating for the house rather than the heating for a room, electric is the wrong tool. That is a wood or gas conversation.
Why the coast is a better case for electric than the hinterland
This is where national heating advice stops being useful and local knowledge starts. A winter evening in Coffs Harbour, Sawtell or Woolgoolga is mild by Australian standards, and the heating season is short. A lot of what people want from a fireplace here is taking the edge off a cool evening in June and July, in one room, for a couple of hours.
That is exactly the job an electric fireplace is built for.
Dorrigo and the hinterland are a different climate on the same invoice. It gets properly cold up there, the cold runs for longer, and the homes are often larger and less sealed. When somebody from up the hill asks about electric, that is usually the conversation where we point at the woodfire heaters instead.
What an electric fireplace costs to run, and the natural gas problem
Almost every running cost comparison you will read on the subject has a hole in it for anyone living here, and it is worth naming.
The standard national comparison puts electric heating against natural gas, and on that comparison electric loses. Sustainability Victoria has published modelled annual heating costs for a 30 square metre living area, and the pattern is clear: a 3 star natural gas heater around $650 a year against electric resistance heating around $860.
The problem is that Coffs Harbour has no reticulated natural gas network. Every gas appliance in this area runs on LPG, which is a different fuel at a different price, and in the same modelling a 3 star LPG heater came out around $1,037 a year, with a 4.5 star LPG unit around $924. Against electric at $860, LPG is not the cheaper option on those figures.
So the honest local position is this. Compared with natural gas, or with wood, an electric fireplace costs more per hour of heat. Compared with LPG, which is the only gas actually available here, the running costs are close enough that they should not be what decides it.
The caveats those figures come with
We would rather give you the numbers with their limitations than give you a cleaner claim we cannot stand behind.
Those figures are modelled on mid 2025 Melbourne energy tariffs and a pre 2005 home, and Melbourne has a colder and longer heating season than the Mid North Coast. Your actual annual cost here will be lower than any of the numbers above, because you will run the appliance for far fewer hours. What carries across is the ranking between the fuels, not the dollar amounts.
The same modelling also shows reverse cycle air conditioning coming in far cheaper to run than any of them, at around $191 a year for a 3 star unit in the same room, or $287 for a 1.5 star one. We do not sell air conditioning, so we have nothing to gain by telling you that, but if running cost alone is the deciding factor then reverse cycle is the answer and a fireplace is not.
What a fireplace gives you that a reverse cycle head does not is the fire. That is not a small thing, and it is the actual reason most people are reading this page.
The variable that matters more than the fuel
Hours of use. An electric fireplace running two hours an evening for eight weeks of the year is an inexpensive appliance to own no matter what the per hour figure says. The same appliance running eight hours a day all winter as a substitute for whole of home heating is where the bills arrive.
Which brings it back to the room. Match the appliance to a room and a habit, and the cost question mostly resolves itself.
What you are really buying
Nobody buys an electric fireplace purely for kilowatts, and we would be pretending otherwise if we structured this page as though they did.
What you are buying is a fire in a room that cannot have one. It goes on a wall in an apartment, into a bedroom, into a rental, into a room with a slab floor and no roof access, and it works the day it arrives.
It is also the only one of the three with no ongoing service obligation. A wood appliance needs its flue cleaned every year, and if you have ever wondered what happens when that is skipped, we have written about what happens if you never clean your flue. A gas appliance needs a periodic service by a licensed gasfitter, which is covered on our repairs and maintenance page. An electric fireplace needs a wipe over and a working power point.
Our electric flame fires page covers the brands we carry and what to look for in one.
When we will tell you to buy wood instead
We would rather lose the sale than have you back in six weeks disappointed, so these are the answers that send us to the other side of the showroom.
If the fireplace is meant to heat the whole house, it is wood or flued gas. If you are in the hinterland, it is usually wood. If the room is large and open plan, it is wood or flued gas. If you lose power in storms and want heat that does not depend on the grid, it is wood, and that is a real consideration on this coast. And if you want the appliance to still be giving off heat two hours after you stop feeding it, that is cast iron and firebricks doing something electric cannot imitate.
Our guide to what a wood heater is made of covers how those materials behave and what fails first, which is worth reading before you spend money on either fuel.
There is also a middle path people forget. An electric fireplace in the bedroom and a wood heater in the living room is a common and sensible combination, and it costs less than trying to make one appliance serve a whole house badly.
Installation, or the lack of it
A plug in or freestanding electric fireplace is not an installation in any meaningful sense. It arrives, it goes where you want it, it plugs in.
A wall mounted unit needs mounting properly, which means fixing into something that will hold it rather than into plasterboard alone. If the unit is hard wired rather than plug in, or the room needs a new circuit or an extra outlet, that is an electrician’s job. Our work is gas, plumbing, drainage and roofing, so electrical work is the one part of this we hand over.
The list of what you do not need is the whole appeal. No council approval. No compliance certificate. No flue penetration through the roof. No clearance to combustibles calculation. No gas line, regulator or bottles. No hearth. No firewood, ash or sweeping. No annual service.
That is the exact opposite of a wood appliance, which needs prior council approval before it goes in, and different again from gas, which needs a licensed gasfitter and a certificate lodged afterwards. Our appliance installation page covers what we install and certify across all three.
Getting the most out of one
A few things make a real difference to whether an electric fireplace heater feels like enough heat.
- Put it in a room with a door and shut the door. Contained volume is the whole game at two kilowatts.
- Turn it on before the room is cold rather than after. It is far easier to hold a temperature than to claw one back.
- Use the low setting for longer instead of the high setting in bursts. Steadier and usually cheaper.
- Deal with the draughts first. A gap under an external door will undo a 1.5 kilowatt heater on its own.
- Run the flame effect on its own in the shoulder season. Most units let you have the fire without the heat, which is a genuinely useful setting in April and October here.
- Check the room is not fighting you. A single glazed window wall facing the water on a windy night is a bigger factor than which model you chose.
FAQs
Do electric fireplaces actually produce heat?
Yes. An electric fireplace uses a resistance element and a fan to put heat into the room, and all of the electricity it draws is converted to heat. The limit is how much it can draw. A standard 10 amp power point caps any plug in appliance at about 2,400 watts, and most electric fireplaces are built at 1,000 to 2,000 watts, with the largest sitting right on that ceiling. That is real heat, and it is enough for one room rather than a whole house.
What size room will an electric fireplace heat?
As a general guide, a single room you can close off. Insulation, ceiling height, glazing and draughts change the answer more than the appliance does, which is why we ask about the room rather than quote a square metre figure. A large open plan living, kitchen and dining space is beyond what any plug in appliance can do on its own.
Are electric fireplaces expensive to run?
Compared with natural gas or wood, electric heating costs more per hour of heat. Compared with LPG, which is the only gas supplied in the Coffs Harbour area, modelled figures put the two much closer together, with LPG coming out higher in some cases. Because the heating season here is short and most people use an electric fireplace in one room for a couple of hours an evening, the total annual cost is usually modest. Hours of use matters more than the fuel.
Is an electric fireplace cheaper to run than an LPG heater?
It can be. Sustainability Victoria modelling for a 30 square metre room put electric resistance heating around $860 a year against a 3 star LPG heater around $1,037 and a 4.5 star LPG unit around $924. Those figures use Melbourne tariffs and a colder climate than ours, so treat them as a ranking rather than a prediction of your bill. The practical point is that in an area with no natural gas, running cost is not a strong reason to rule electric out.
Do I need council approval to install an electric fireplace?
No. Electric fireplaces need no council approval, no flue and no compliance certificate. A plug in or wall mounted unit needs a power point, and an electrician only if the unit is hard wired or the room needs a new circuit. This is the main practical difference from a wood appliance, which requires council approval before it is installed.
Can I put an electric fireplace in a bedroom?
Yes, and it is one of the better uses for one. There is no combustion, so there is no flue, no carbon monoxide and no oxygen consumption in the room, which is not true of an unflued gas heater. Keep the required clearances from bedding and curtains as set out in the manual, and use the timer if the unit has one.
Do electric fireplaces need servicing?
Not in the way gas and wood appliances do. There is no flue to sweep, no burner to clean and no combustion to test, so there is no annual or two yearly service obligation. Keep the air inlet and outlet clear of dust, and if the fan becomes noisy or the heat stops while the flame effect still works, that is worth looking at rather than ignoring.
Can an electric fireplace replace my wood heater?
Usually not, if the wood heater is doing the heating for the house. A plug in appliance cannot match the output of a wood fireplace and cannot hold heat after it is switched off. Where the swap does work is a room that never needed that much heat in the first place, or a household that has stopped wanting to handle firewood and is happy to heat fewer rooms. Come and talk it through rather than guessing, because it is an expensive thing to get wrong in either direction.
Tell Us About the Room, Not the Appliance
Every useful answer on this subject starts with the room. Its size, its ceiling, its doors, its windows and how many hours a week you actually sit in it. Tell us that and we will tell you honestly whether an electric fireplace is enough, and say so if it is not.
Come and see us at 92 Industrial Drive, North Boambee Valley, call (02) 6652 2411, or send us an enquiry. We have gas, wood and electric on the floor to compare in person, and we service Coffs Harbour, Scotts Head, Dorrigo, Grafton and everywhere in between as the same family business since 1982.
Written by the team at Coffs Gas Company.
Disclaimer: This article is general information only and is current at the time of writing. Running cost figures are drawn from third party modelling based on Victorian energy tariffs and will differ from actual costs in the Coffs Harbour region. Appliance outputs, clearances and electrical requirements vary by model, so always follow the manufacturer’s instructions and use a licensed electrician for any hard wired or new circuit work.
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